- Seagate Exos and Ironwolf Pro HDDS are privileged targets for crooks
- The crooks modify the QR codes and even lead the standard numbers
- Toshiba and Western Digital are not as targeted as Seagate – Why ?
The controversy of fraudsters modifying the hard drives of Seagate used to seem unused despite having been propelled for thousands of hours.
The exos hard drives have been initially targeted, but new evidence of Heise (via Computerbase – both at the origin in German) suggest that Ironwolf and Ironwolf Pro NAS training with capacities between 8 TB and 16 TB are now trained in the scam.
The units concerned with the fastest hard drives may seem new if key data such as intelligent parameters (self-surveillance, analysis and ratio technology) are falsified.
How the crooks manipulate the data of the hard drive
Some of these discs were concluded more than 27,000 hours of operation. However, users can verify the real condition of a reader using tools like smartmontools to recover hidden operational data.
Shols also modify the labels of the products and the QR codes to bypass the Seagate warranty verification system. Instead of directing users to a page displaying precise details of the product, these modified QR codes redirect to the verification of the Seagate warranty but do not provide the serial number or storage capacity.
Another method used is the handling of the serial number, in which fraudsters take the standard numbers of new discs and attach them to the old units, encouraging the Seagate system to display an extended warranty period.
However, this system often calculates exactly five years warranty from their supposed production date, which is a potential red flag that worried customers can investigate.
Experts suggest that potential buyers can verify certain newspapers – such as SATA PHY events or events – to determine if a reader has previously been used.
Seagate has recognized the problem, confirming that fraudulent practices affect the Ironwolf and Exos hard drives. The company is currently investigating the issue to answer these concerns.
In the meantime, buyers are advised to be careful when buying Seagate hard drives from unofficial sellers and check the details of the product using several sources before making a purchase.
Until now, there has been no confirmed report of similar scams involving Toshiba or Western Digital (WD) hard drives. This raises the question: why is Seagate the main objective?
One possible reason is that the Seagate verification system is based on data that fraudsters find easier to handle; Unlike Seagate, WD and Toshiba do not use the same agricultural value system.
